


The Price of Secrets

by zhenarator



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Language, Getting Together, M/M, Pre-Slash, Steve and Tony are both oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 20:06:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4151109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhenarator/pseuds/zhenarator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony and Steve have become very close, but Tony can't keep hiding his identity as Iron Man forever. Something has to give, and unfortunately it may be his relationship with Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price of Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatsweetmysteryoflife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsweetmysteryoflife/gifts).



> This is a gift for thatsweetmysteryoflife. It is inexcusably late, but hopefully they like it. They asked for identity porn. This is my first foray into writing Steve/Tony so feedback is very much appreciated! The story is definitely AU. It's a bit of a mash-up of 616/MCU/EMH among others I'm sure (it kind of got away from me). [aeonsfromthesun](http://aeonsfromthesun.tumblr.com/) (on tumblr, buildamyth here on AO3) was kind enough to beta the story for me! Thank you so much. Anyway, please enjoy!

Steve had been spending considerably more time in Tony's lab lately. Tony wasn't complaining, exactly. He had really enjoyed their conversations and their time spent together. Actually, he was probably enjoying Steve's company a bit too much. He could tell he was falling for Steve, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do anything about it. Having Steve around was just so comfortable. It just felt right. And if that meant that Tony would have to work harder to not cross any lines with his friend, so be it. But it did make it a bit more difficult to be a secret superhero. 

Obviously Steve knew who made all of Iron Man's equipment, but it became more and more difficult to explain why the Iron Man himself was never around. It was also beginning to feel more and more like Tony was actively lying to Steve. Which he hated, but by the time he had really wanted to tell Steve the truth, he had been lying for so long that he knew Steve would be furious with him. Call him a coward, he just couldn't risk it. Steve's friendship, and if he was being completely honest, Steve's approval, was just too important. 

Unfortunately, Tony was positive he had just completely blown his cover. The team had been finishing up a particularly nasty fight with Doom bots (always the Doom bots). Iron Man had seen a bot trying to grab Captain America from behind, and, without thinking, he had swooped down, putting himself between Cap and the bot. For his trouble, Iron Man had ended up stuck in the robot's mechanical clutches and it had proceeded to smash him repeatedly against the wall of, ironically, a chiropractic clinic.

Captain America had, of course, dispatched the robot after just a few moments (tearing it's head off with his bare hands, well, gloved hands...whatever), and Tony hadn't been seriously hurt (he was pretty sure), but he could see something like anger flash in the captain's eyes as Iron Man refused medical attention after the fight and flew off, without so much as a cursory glance at the cleanup required.  
It wasn't unusual for Iron Man to leave early, though he tried to help with cleanup when he could. Leaving early gave Tony a head start on covering his tracks, so it certainly wasn't strange for him to take off. Unfortunately the suit had suffered some moderate damage and took quite a bit longer to remove than usual, due to some warped seams. It took him close to an hour, and there were pieces of the armor left scattered around the workshop before he was free.

Tony had just barely managed to strip out of the undersuit when Steve, finished with the post battle debrief, came storming into the workshop. Tony cursed not having blocked his access codes, while turning to smile nonchalantly at him; wearing nothing but his red boxer briefs. 

"Hey there, Cap? What can I do for you?"

Steve, for his part, looked thoroughly flustered at having caught Tony in his underwear, his eyes darting quickly around the workshop. No doubt noticing all the telltale signs of Tony being Iron Man. Tony didn't wait to see if he was found out though. He gave Steve his best rakish playboy grin, shrugged, and said, "What's the matter, Cap? Never seen a man in his skivvies before?" Maybe if he kept Steve off-guard then he wouldn't come to the obvious conclusion that Tony was Iron Man and had been lying to him about it since they'd met.  
Tony was expecting any number of reactions, but not the one he got. Steve blushed, spluttered an apology and told Tony to let Iron Man know he wanted to have words. Tony chalked Steve's strange reaction up to 1940s sensibilities and set about gathering up the discarded pieces of the armor as well as the undersuit.

 

While Tony would definitely be interested in a different type of dressing down from Steve; he hated getting scolded by Captain America. Especially when he hadn't done anything to deserve it. He'd saved the guy from being blind-sided by a Doombot for fuck's sake. He picked up his jeans and t-shirt off the floor where he had left them as he had hurriedly changed into the undersuit and the armor before the battle.

Tony was very sore after being tossed around in the suit earlier and really didn't feel like being lectured by Captain America. He got dressed in his jeans and t-shirt and had JARVIS do a scan to make sure nothing was broken. Maybe dinner followed by some tinkering in the workshop would make him feel better.

"You do not have any broken bones, sir. However you are experiencing some severe bruising. My medical databases recommend ice tonight, followed by hot compresses tomorrow."

Tony looked at his image, live streaming through JARVIS' scan, craning his neck to see the beginnings of several bruises on his jaw, neck and shoulders. He sighed and gingerly poked at the one on the left side of his jaw. That was one of the more difficult things to hide about being Iron Man. It became very suspicious if whenever Iron Man was hurt in battle, Tony Stark showed up later with bruises.  
Tony headed up to the common area of the tower. He could get some ice and some food up there, and maybe joke with whichever Avengers were around about how he always missed out on battles. He loved spending time with his team, and he was really beginning to hate lying to them. Which is what it felt like, the better he got to know them, the longer he considered them friends, the more it felt like he was betraying their trust. But he supposed it couldn't be helped, though he often considered telling them.

For the moment, Tony simply dragged himself up the stairs and into the elevator to the common floor. He got the distinct feeling he had interrupted a conversation about himself when he walked into the kitchen. Steve and Jan had been talking to each other across the island, but they both quieted suspiciously when Tony came in. Plus Steve was apparently going to avoid looking at him at all. Was it really that awkward for him to have seen Tony in his underwear?

"Hey, Tony," Jan ventured after a moment,"How is your day going?"

Tony had expected at least some questions about his bruises, but maybe the Avengers were getting used to Tony being hurt all the time. Or they were just tired of hearing one of his patented excuses about hurting himself in the workshop. Whatever the case, Tony decided not to dwell on it too much.

"Oh, you know, Jan. Things to invent, armor to repair. Same old, same old."

Jan came to stand next to Tony as he opened the freezer to get some ice.

"Tony," she started, sounding deeply concerned, "You know that we're your friends too, right? Just because Iron Man wears the armor in the field, doesn't mean you're any less a part of this team. You know that, right Tony?"

Tony closed the freezer and raised an eyebrow at Jan. Where was this coming from? He glanced at Steve, hoping for some sort of clue, but that wasn't happening. Steve was still avoiding looking Tony in the eye.

"Yeah, sure." Tony answered, offhandedly. If he was really honest with himself, what Jan said did mean a lot to him.

"Okay. Just wanted to make sure you knew that..." Jan said as she turned and headed out of the kitchen.

Tony watched her leave feeling a bit bewildered, but he turned back to the freezer to grab the ice he had come here for.

"That was a little out of the blue, huh Cap?" Tony asked, trying to play the whole thing off and also hoping that Steve hadn't decided to completely stop talking to him just because he'd seen him mostly naked.

"Tony, what happened to your face?" Steve asked abruptly.

"I don't know, Steve. Just lucky I guess. To have such a devilishly handsome face, genius level intellect, and a remarkably skilled tongue," Tony answered, leaning heavily on the double entendre and leering a bit at Steve. It was a bit over the top, but Tony was getting a little tired of the back-and-forth. This wasn't the first time Steve had questioned him about suspicious injuries. Innuendo often seemed to do the trick and get Steve to stop asking about....well anything really. It was a good way to shut down a conversation with Steve and Tony took full advantage of it. 

Tony's response earned him an angry glower and the rather spectacular sight of Steve flushing from the tips of his ears all the way down his neck. And, damn, if that wasn't a striking sight to behold. Unfortunately, instead of Steve just dropping it like he normally would, Tony could actually see his resolve strengthening.

"I'm serious, Tony. What happened?"

"It was just-"

"And don't say it was an accident in the workshop," Steve interrupted. "I've been watching you work down there for months and you haven't once hurt yourself. You're too graceful...I mean," Steve looked uncomfortable. "You know exactly what you're doing and you're very skilled...you don't hurt yourself, aside from the occasional jammed finger or stubbed toe. Nothing like this," Steve made a face, gesturing at the bruises on Tony's face and neck.

For a few sickening moments, Tony had no idea what to say. The genuinely concerned and compassionate look on Steve's face definitely wasn't helping either. For a split second, Tony considered telling Steve everything. Right there in the middle of the kitchen. But then Tony balked and began to panic. It wasn't until that moment that he realized how truly terrified he was of losing the Avenger's friendship (especially Steve's). So, of course, in his panic, Tony fell back on what he did best, being an inappropriate asshole in order to push people away.

Tony pulled his best contemptuous look.

"C'mon, Cap, you can't really be that naive. It's called a rough fuck for a reason."

Tony's words were calculated to offend Steve in the most efficient way possible. He barely had time to consider that with circumstantial evidence and his continued sexual innuendo, he had just inadvertently implied a sexual relationship between himself and Iron Man, but Tony had been desperate to redirect Steve's attention, consequences be damned. For a moment, Tony thought it had worked and he had effectively pissed Steve off enough that he would stop asking questions (possibly stop coming around at all). Steve's cheeks turned very pink, but Tony knew he was really in trouble when Steve didn't drop his gaze and leave. On the contrary, Steve's gaze intensified and he got that (frankly terrifying, but adorable when not directed at Tony) wrinkle between his brows.

Shit, shit, shit. Tony knew he'd made a tactical error. The worst part about knowing, with every fiber of his being, that he'd screwed up was that he couldn't do a damned thing about it now. Not without spilling all the beans, so to speak. 

"Oh, Tony," Steve said, gently. He shook his head, looking genuinely concerned.

And that, for some reason, made the tight ball of anxiety and irritation in Tony's chest flare into full blown anger. 

"Don't look at me like that! I don't need you patronizing me. I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself. I know things were different in your time, Steve, but we're not in the 40s anymore it’s not like that anymore and I can, in fact, sleep with whomever I want! And before you say anything, yes! Even a man! Even Iron Man!"

He saw Steve's frown deepen, but before Steve could reply, Tony turned on his heel and stormed out. Let it not be said that Tony Stark did anything halfway, especially when it came to pissing off the people closest to him. 

Tony couldn't believe what had just happened. What had he just said? What had he been thinking? The clear problem was that he hadn't been thinking. Sometimes it was nearly impossible to think around Steve. For all of Tony's genius intellect, he was often blindsided by a simple look or word from Steve; all his thoughts grinding to a halt. And oh fuck, when had that happened?! Tony tried to pinpoint when he had gone from admiring Steve and being his friend (who was only sometimes attracted to him), to being able to think of little else besides how much he really liked him.

Well, he had a feeling it wouldn't really be an issue. Steve was definitely never going to talk to him again, especially after that little tirade.  
Tony growled angrily as he rode the elevator back down to his workshop, how could he have accidentally implied that he was involved with Iron Man? And then just gone with it?! Something about having your childhood idol and current friend/crush, who grew up in the 1920s/30s, find out you like women AND men (and secretly being terrified of what he'll think of you after that) could apparently make you temporarily lose your shit. 

"Dammit! I forgot the ice..." Tony grumbled, stiffly sitting down to look through the archived footage of the earlier battle.

"The full results of your medical scan are available now, sir. Along with moderate bruising, you also appear to have a very mild concussion. Recommended treatment includes rest and supervision."

"Place a live monitor on my vitals, JARVIS. Now bring up the schematics for this latest version of the doom bots."

"Sir, Captain Rogers is requesting entrance to the lab."

"No." 

The last thing Tony wanted right now was to be chided (at best) or to be asked to hand over mechanic duties for Iron Man and leave (at worst, even though he owned the place). He also had no desire to discuss his sexuality with Captain America, which he was pretty sure was one of the main reasons Steve had come down to the workshop. To make Tony answer for his untoward behavior with an Avenger or something... What had he gotten himself into now?

****

A couple days later the Avengers got a call about giant rats terrorizing Brooklyn. Tony was still kind of freaking out about how close he'd come to blowing his cover with Steve, and he was still avoiding Steve at all costs, so he decided to call Rhodey. 

"What's wrong?" Rhodey answered his phone, a mixture of concern and exasperation in his tone.

"What's with that tone?" Tony replied, "I don't only call when I'm in trouble."

Rhodey didn't respond. 

"Okay, okay, I need a favor."

"There it is."

"Be Iron Man today? I have a lot going on in the shop today and I really need you to cover for me. Actually it would be best if you could make a brief appearance here after the battle, preferably in the same room as me..."

"Who knows?" Rhodey asked, never one to beat around the bush.

"Well, no one knows precisely.....It's just....Steve.."

"Ah. I see.”

Rhodey always did his best to help Tony whenever he could, and, even though he had a hard time expressing it, Tony was endlessly grateful for his friendship and support. 

 

****

 

Things between Tony and Steve did not improve over the next week. Tony kept the workshop in lockdown and could only manage stilted conversation when he ventured into the kitchen for food and Steve inevitably found him. It was obvious that Steve wanted to talk, and Tony desperately missed how things had been just a week ago, but at the same time he was terrified. He was terrified that he would really not like whatever Steve had to say and he was furious at himself for being so scared in the first place.

Tony was up to his eyeballs in repairs/upgrades to the armor. Frustrated and angry at himself and the stupid situation; he was so sick of it that he decided to swallow his pride and just go talk to Steve. That's when he had his first real accident in the workshop in a couple of years.

He'd been tweaking one of the robots responsible for building pieces of armor when it's programming unexpectedly booted up before he was finished. The robotic arm jolted to the side, smacking hard into Tony's cheekbone. In his attempt to avoid being thoroughly brained by a robot, Tony flailed backwards and to the side, tripping over a prototype armor breastplate. He fell, landing hard on his hip.

For a split second Tony was sure he had broken it. It reminded him of the time he had accidentally gotten between the Hulk and a truck that had been directed at an AIM agent. Pain ripped through the left side of his body. What a stupid way to break a hip when you spend every other week battling colossal baddies, he thought fleetingly. He couldn't move or even cry out in pain for what seemed like forever. When he finally caught his breath a few moments later, he gave the shutdown order to JARVIS and began trying to peel himself off of the floor.

Well, this is just great, Tony thought, catching a glimpse of himself in the reflection of one of his displays. His bruises from the battle last week had only just started to fade and it already looked like he'd be sporting an impressive shiner from this cock up.

Tony had just made himself a drink and was limping over to the couch (maybe a small break was a good idea) where he could at least get some coding finished, when Rhodes came into the workshop in the Iron Man armor.

"Hey, Rhodey," Tony called, waving him over, "How'd the mission go? I'm guessing it went okay. There's no visible damage to the armor. Cap hasn't sent the field report to everyone yet, but if you just got back that makes sense. I'd come over there and do a quick inspection of the armor, but my hip probably doesn't work anymore. You know, occupational hazard, robots doing whatever they damn well please and such...you know how it is," Tony waved his hand dismissively.

Rhodey flipped the faceplate up and gave Tony his patented "Tony, what are you even talking about" look. He shook his head though, expression softening into genuine affection, and headed toward the couch.

"We need to talk, Tony," Rhodey said, coming to stand in front of him.

"Uh-oh. Are you breaking up with me, Rhodey?"

Rhodes sighed, again exasperated but affectionate.

"When was the last time you talked to Steve?"

"What? I don't know...last week I guess..." Tony tried for nonchalance, but his voice sounded strained even to his own ears.

"You really need to talk to him," Rhodey began,"and, Tony, I really think you should tell him."

Tony had been multitasking, inputting program code on his tablet while they spoke, but at that suggestion his head jerked so he could look at Rhodes' face.

"No," Tony said flatly.

"Why not? Tony, it's obvious that you two have become really close friends. Actually, you've become really close with all of the Avengers. You trust each other with your lives almost on a daily basis. Even during the few times I've stood in for you, it's so obvious they care about you, Tony. I think you should tell all of them, but I really think Steve should know."

Tony wasn't very often speechless, but Rhodey had known him forever, was his best friend, and knew exactly how to cut right through Tony's "devil-may-care" façade. He frowned, not sure what to say.

Rhodey headed over to the disassembly robots while Tony was left to stare after him. Once Rhodey was free from the suit, he headed toward the exit, but stopped briefly to gently place his hand on Tony's shoulder and give it a reassuring little squeeze.

"Steve is the team's leader, but that's not the only reason I really think he needs to know," Rhodey said, before walking out of the workshop.

"Wait," Tony called after him, just before he was out of earshot, "What happened? Did he say something?"

"Yeah," Rhodey said, then he just left, leaving Tony feeling even more frustrated.

 

****

Pepper called some 37 hours later. Tony hadn't left the workshop since Rhodey had given him his cryptic advice. He was too busy. There were repairs on the armor to do, upgrades to make to Clint's equipment, reinforcements to add to Jan's uniform fabric (there was no way she would let him design or make her outfit, but he could at least try to give her the most protective materials to work with), along with a plethora of software updates to program. Not leaving the workshop was a side effect of being busy, not a way to avoid Steve, or because moving much at all really hurt, thank you very much. 

Tony let JARVIS answer the call and route it through the workshop's sound system.

"Tony?"

"Hey, Pep," he answered.

"Tony, what are you doing?"

"I'm elbow deep in Iron Man's chest piece, some of the-"

"No, Tony. What are you doing shutting your team out?"

"I'm not-" Tony began to protest, but Pepper interrupted him again.

"Tony. Steve has called me three times in as many days. He's worried. They all are. Jan said she thought you might be in some kind of trouble and then asked me to tell her everything I knew about Iron Man."

"I hope you didn't tell her everything," Tony began, then something caught his attention and he finally looked over to the monitor from which Pepper was raising an eyebrow disapprovingly. "Wait a second, when did you talk to Jan?" He asked, taken slightly aback.

"We have coffee together sometimes. We aim for once a week. Before you ask-"

Tony closed his mouth, disappointed that Pepper had seen his smart ass comment coming.

"We don't spend our coffee dates just talking about you," Pepper finished.

"But you do talk about me."

Pepper ignored him.

"She and I are friends too, Tony."

Her eyes flicked down, then returned to the screen.

"I'm sorry. I have a meeting to get to, but your friends are worried about you, Tony. I don't know what happened, or why you're not talking to them, but if it's because of Iron Man....Maybe it's time to tell them. And before you say anything, I think you should consider which is more important, your secret or your friends."

The line went dead.

"If I tell them my secret, I'll lose them anyway," Tony muttered as he got back to work.

****

 

If Tony thought things couldn't get much worse, he was sorely mistaken. It turned out the doombots they had fought earlier had been prototypes and had transmitted information about the fight back to Doom. The call that new and improved bots were rampaging through a neighboring city came in sometime around Tony's fifty-fourth consecutive hour in the workshop. Tony fully intended to have Iron Man sit this fight out, but seventeen minutes after the Avengers responded, JARVIS answered an emergency call for Iron Man; patching into the team's comms. Captain America's voice was strained as he spoke.

"Iron Man! We need air support now," a massive explosion caused the communication to fuzz out momentarily. Tony cursed. He should have been keeping an eye on the battle, but he was forced to admit he'd probably been going for too long without sleep and wasn't really thinking clearly anymore. He started stripping out of his clothes and quickly slipped into the undersuit.

"Sir," JARVIS chimed in. "My programming requires that I remind you of the dangers of operating the armor while severely sleep deprived."

Tony nearly ran toward the armor assembly.

"JARVIS patch the armor into the Avengers comms," Tony ordered, barely waiting for the armor's systems to boot up before diving off the building and flying toward his team.

"I'm on my way, Avengers," Tony said, his voice safely disguised by the armor. "ETA 3 minutes."

"It's about time,Iron Man," Steve's voice came over the comms, still sounding strained. It wasn't like Steve to be so short with his teammates, but it sounded like things were pretty serious on the ground so Tony didn't think much of it.

There was a loud sound of impact and Tony could just barely hear Steve groan. Tony's heart thudded rapidly against his ribs and fear crawled up the back of his neck.

"What's the situation, Cap?" Tony called, still rapidly skimming through the information he'd collected on the last doombots they'd faced.

There was no answer, just the continued sounds of battle.

"Cap? Cap?!?!"

Tony's chest tightened painfully, and the bottom seemed to fall out of his stomach.

"JARVIS, get me eyes on the battle now!" Tony snapped.

"Sir, it is technically illegal to access the city's traffic cam-"

"I don't care, J, Just do it!"

He sped up, flinching slightly as he broke the sound barrier. Even traveling at this dangerous speed it would still take about 45 seconds to get there, and as Tony knew all too well, a lot could happen in 45 seconds.

Tony felt a little lightheaded when JARVIS began streaming nearby security camera footage into the suit's HUD, and he realized that Steve had just had his earpiece knocked out during the fight and didn't appear to have any serious injuries.

With Iron Man and Wasp fighting from the air, the Avengers began to turn the tide in their favor. Cap even had a moment to reach into a small pouch on his belt and slip a replacement earpiece in. Once Captain America was back in communication with his team and guiding their battle tactics the doombots barely stood a snowball's chance.

One of them did manage to take advantage of Tony's slightly slower than normal reflexes and wedge it's claw under Iron Man's right shoulder plate, but, almost immediately, Cap's shield bounced off of its head(?), distracting it while a swift repulsor blast shook it free. After that the bots began to scatter, but with the Avengers on their tails they didn't make it very far.

"Thanks for your help, Iron Man. We really appreciate it."

Tony startled a bit, he'd been crouched down trying to get a complete scan of the latest version of doombots.

"No problem, Cap," he replied, standing and facing the captain, "I'll get this info back to Stark ASAP so he can come up with some new countermeasures."

Steve's face hardened as they came face to faceplate.

"See that you do," Steve bade, his jaw twitching minutely. "You are a valuable asset to this team, Iron Man, but I meant what I said the last time we spoke. You are still on very thin ice."

The threat was clear in Steve's voice as well as every line of his body. He was furious, Tony realized as Steve turned abruptly, leaving to help organize cleanup.

It had been days now since Tony had slept. He was exhausted and with everything that had been going on lately he felt like metal wire being pulled through smaller and smaller openings in order to make it stretch farther and farther, until it just couldn't be stretched anymore. Apparently Tony had hit the breaking point, because irrational anger quickly flared in his chest, crawling it's way up his throat. Then he was calling after Steve, before the captain had taken more than a couple of steps, "Better to be on the ice than in it!"

Steve's steps faltered, but he kept his back turned. His voice was calm and steady when he spoke.

"I understand some fights haven't been going smoothly for you and that you've been frustrated lately," Steve began, "and you're welcome to take it out on me, but don't you dare do anything to hurt anyone else on this team. Understood?"

A distant part of Tony's brain realized that his emotions were no longer under his control, but that didn't stop his anger from exploding into full blown fury at Steve's insinuation that Tony was a danger to their team.

Steve didn't wait for his reply.

"Debrief. SHIELD FOB. Now." He ground out, resuming his stride away from Iron Man.

Tony cut his comm and took off, flying nearly as fast as he could with no particular destination in mind. 

*****

Flying usually helped Tony clear his head, and while it didn't help him figure out what to do now that he had somehow managed to piss Steve off as Tony Stark and Iron Man, it did help him cool down a bit. He knew that extreme emotional fluctuations were a side effect of sleep deprivation, but he'd never experienced it this strongly before. Which was actually true of a lot of feelings he had about Steve, but that wasn't the point. What he had said to Steve had really been a terrible thing to say. 

Tony headed back home. He hated to admit it, but what he really needed right now was sleep. Once he was back in the workshop he was halfway through removing the armor when the fingers of the left gauntlet started twitching a bit. 

Oh great, Tony thought, now I get to debug the programming. He sighed heavily, wondering how the fuck any of this would get better.

"Wow...I've really fucked everything up, huh JARVIS," Tony murmured as he left the workshop and went to his room. He took a very quick shower, only pausing for a few minutes to inspect his rather impressive collection of new bruises from his accident earlier. He hadn't slept since then but it had been long enough for the bruises to begin to darken. Judging by the look of them now, they would get darker still. 

Tony crawled into bed and tried to sleep, but he couldn't make his brain turn off. He had too many things rushing through it and he was especially distracted thinking about how Steve now surely hated him as Iron Man and Tony Stark. So Tony found himself back in his workshop less than an hour later when another call to assemble came in. 

At this point Tony knew he shouldn’t go. He’d lost track of how long it had been since he’d slept. It would only put his team in danger and he refused to let Captain America be right about Iron Man being a danger to the team. The call seemed pretty serious though. Something about mutant slime monsters. So, he did the only thing he could, he called Rhodey.

“Tony, please don’t tell me you need me to be Iron Man,” Rhodey said as he answered the call.

“Rhodey, please. You know I don’t normally ask. I haven’t slept in too long. My programming makes JARVIS lock me out of the suits if I haven’t slept in 72 hours. I don’t want to risk my team, Rhodey.”

He heard Rhodes heave a sigh on the other end of the line.

“Of course I’ll help you, Tony. But I want you to tell your team. You can’t keep shouldering all of this on your own. Promise me.”

“I...I promise,” Tony responded.

“Send the armor to pick me up.”

“Will do….thank you, Rhodey. For everything.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rhodey replied, affection evident in his tone.

 

****

 

Two hours later, Colonel James Rhodes oozed into Tony’s workshop. The armor was covered in slime.

“You know I hate slime monsters,” Rhodey grumbled, as he and Tony pulled the armor off of him piece by piece. They couldn’t use the disassembly bots, because they would remove the armor and then store it, which couldn’t be done until it was thoroughly cleaned.

“Yeah, sorry,” Tony said, as he pulled the last piece free and began wiping the pieces down the best he could. He’d have to pressure wash them later, but he was able to get most of the slime off easily enough. Rhodey was helping and for awhile they simply sat in companionable silence, wiping thick green slime off of the armor.

“Well, I need to go,” Rhodey said after awhile,”Tell your team.”

“Yeah, I will,” Tony said, waving his hand in Rhodey’s general direction.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot, there were a few little hiccups in the HUD tonight. You might want to take a look at it. It didn’t affect the armor’s operation, but yeah. Take a look.”

“Really? What kind of hiccups?” Tony was concerned, but the concern felt numbed by his exhaustion.

“Just some brief static in the HUDs visual data. Also, Captain America seemed really irritated with Iron Man...you should probably tell him the truth.”

When Rhodey said it like that, it seemed so obvious and simple. But nothing was ever that simple, right? Rhodey began to say something else, but was cut off by JARVIS.

"Sir, Captain Rogers has informed me that he requires access to the lab."

"No," Tony said at the same time that Rhodey gave Tony a pointed look and said,

"Let him in."

"Fine, JARVIS. Let the good captain in."

Steve had a mostly neutral expression as he entered the workshop, looking perhaps like he had simply wanted to discuss some technical aspect of the battle with Tony, in spite of their strained interactions lately. That realization actually made Tony's chest tighten. Maybe they could still salvage their friendship after all.

Unfortunately that hope died instantly, leaving a dry ashen taste in the back of Tony's throat as Steve's eyes swept over Tony and his face betrayed several emotions rapidly before settling on...disappointment? Disgust? And wow, did that hurt. More than Tony had thought possible. His eyes actually began to burn, damn involuntary biochemical reactions...

"Tony," Steve finally said, cautiously, "What happened?"

Only then did Tony remember his accident and think about what he must look like to Steve. He was sure he was already sporting an impressive shiner, along with assorted other bruises. Glancing briefly at 

Rhodey, who gave him the ‘now-is-the-perfect-time-to-tell-him look', Tony hesitated before replying.

"I'm fine, Steve. Just a minor kerfuffle with some of my bots earlier, no big deal."

Steve glowered.

"I'm sorry Colonel Rhodes, but could I have a minute with my teammate?"

Rhodey quirked an eyebrow, but something in the tension around his mouth told Tony that his best friend was trying not to smile. What could possibly be amusing about this situation was beyond Tony.

"Certainly, Captain Rogers. I was just stopping in to check on a friend. I'd heard he was having a tough week," Rhodey said before turning to Tony and gripping the crook of his shoulder gently. "You take care, okay, Tony?" He said, but his expression said, 'let your team take care of you sometimes too'. 

Tony and Rhodey had had this conversation before, about leaning on friends and teammates for support. No man should be an island type stuff that Tony had done his best to ignore. Tony knew he was beyond lucky that Rhodey and Pepper had stuck around as long as they had. He couldn't expect there to be more people in the world unhinged enough to try to tolerate him.Tony just nodded in response to Rhodey. He couldn't think of anything to say, and he was dreading being alone with Steve for the first time since he had kind of inadvertently suggested that he and Iron Man were fucking.

Rhodey let go of Tony's shoulder, then turned toward Steve, holding his hand out.

"Maybe you can talk some sense into him. I know he really admires and respects you, Captain."

Tony knew he was staring wide-eyed at what Rhodey had just said, but he couldn't help it. His best friend had just basically spilled the beans about Tony's lifelong crush on Captain America. Wow. So much for friendship...

Steve's expression softened and he took Rhodey's hand, shaking it warmly.

"Somehow I doubt anyone is capable of that," he replied.

Rhodey chuckled.

"Hey. I'm right here..." Tony interjected petulantly.

"You're probably right, Captain. Have a good chat, gentlemen," he said over his shoulder as he left the workshop.

The silence stretched uncomfortably between them after Rhodey took his leave. Tony had been on his feet too long and his hip was really starting to hate him for it.

"If you don't mind, Cap, I'm going to have a seat...tough day," Tony said, and his voice betrayed some of his exhaustion and frustration with the whole mess he'd gotten himself into. "You're welcome to sit too," he added as he started to shift his weight onto his bad hip in order to walk the few steps left between him and the couch.

Tony looked away from Steve, purposely concentrating only on his soft, squishy, couch-y goal. Because of what he had implied the last time they spoke, Tony really didn't want Steve to see him limping, but, in his attempt to walk those few steps normally, Tony let too much weight rest on his left side. The pain, though not insignificant while he was standing with his weight almost entirely on his right side, became MUCH more apparent as he stepped with his left foot. It was sharp and deep as it lanced through his side. Tony stumbled and let out a very small very pathetic whimper. Damn it.

Of course Steve was at his side in an instant helping him to the couch. Tony couldn't bring himself to look at Steve, this was all too embarrassing. Steve didn't say anything until he had helped Tony arrange himself into a somewhat pain free position on the couch. Then Tony looked up in surprise as Steve knelt down in front of him. Tony knew what he had expected to see in Steve's eyes, pity, disgust, disdain; but what he did see shocked him. Steve was looking at him with a depth of kindness, compassion, and concern that Tony had very rarely experienced before. Embarrassingly, his throat tightened and he didn't think he would be able to speak.

"Tony," Steve said softly, "I know...,"

Tony's heart jumped into his throat.

"I know your pride is very important to you...," Steve continued, oblivious to Tony's near heart attack as he seemed to be trying to choose his own words very carefully. "I thought we were becoming closer. I hoped that we could confide in each other if either of us had a problem or needed help. You are as much a part of this team as anyone. More so, really. You're the heart of this team, and I care about you Tony."

Warmth bloomed in Tony's chest. Did Captain America just tell him that he was the heart of the Avengers? More importantly, did Steve Rogers just tell him he cared about him? Fuck. He was really in trouble.

"Look, Tony. You've made your feelings about me trying to interfere with you and Iron Man very clear over the past week. I just wanted to let you know that you're just as important to this team as he is. Just as important to me...more important..."

The tips of Steve's ears were turning pink. Tony couldn't quite wrap his genius brain around what he was hearing. Steve seemed to steel himself for something.

"Tony, please don't get mad at me, well, don't get madder. I want you to be safe and happy. I would really love if we could go back to being friends, so I promise this is the last I'll say about it, but I know how hard it can be to leave an abusive relationship. My mother couldn't do it, and she was one of the strongest people I've ever known."

Tony felt like he'd been punched in the chest. So that was why Steve had been trying to talk to him about this whole stupid thing. It wasn’t because Captain America disapproved of men dating men, or wanted to take Tony off the team; Steve wanted Tony to know he didn't have to endure an abusive relationship. Well, shit. Rhodey was right, he did need to tell Steve everything. Unfortunately lying had become a habit, a very difficult one to break, but Tony thought maybe he could try.

Tony opened his mouth to say something, he wasn't sure what, something that would lead him to telling Steve the truth he hoped, but his voice died in his throat before he could even begin. Steve was looking him dead in the eye as he raised one of his big, warm, perfect hands and ever so lightly ran his thumb over the dark, ugly bruise under Tony's eye.

Tony flinched at the touch and Steve quickly withdrew his hand, his ears turning a little redder.

"I'm sorry," Steve breathed, "I didn't mean to hurt you. Just...please, Tony, if you ever need my help. I'm here for you. If it comes down to choosing you or Iron Man, I'd choose you every time."

Steve's touch hadn't hurt him, on the contrary, it had felt way too good. Tony nodded weakly, swallowing around a strange lump in his throat and trying to push away the intense wave of arousal that was threatening to wash over him.

"If he hurts you again," Steve said, his voice even, but tight with conviction, "He’s off the team. I don’t care how good he is in the field."

Before Tony could respond, Steve stood and stormed out of the workshop. Tony couldn't quite believe what had just happened. Steve was worried about Tony. Worried he was being hurt. Some small part of his mind, too heavily influenced by Howard Stark probably, thought it was a little ridiculous that Steve was worried that a man was being abused in a relationship. But then, of course Tony knew better than that now. Anyone could find themselves in an abusive relationship. Tony remembered the catch in Steve’s voice as he had admitted that his father had abused his mother. No wonder he was taking such an interest in this. It went beyond Steve just caring about a friend that he was witnessing suffer abuse. Tony shook his head roughly. He wasn’t being abused by Iron Man! God, how had this become such a mess? Because you’re involved, his brain helpfully supplied.

Tony growled, picking up his tablet and angrily starting to sift through the armor’s code. Rhodey had said there was something wrong with it. He may as well work on fixing it, since it was probably the only thing he’d be able to fix in his life right now, he thought darkly. He tried to distract himself with running through the code, but he kept losing focus. He could still feel the ghost of Steve's touch. Tony brought up the tower's security cameras and quickly zeroed in on Steve's location. He was currently pummeling his way through several of the strongest punching bags Tony could make. Fuck. Tony was in so much trouble.

****

Tony finally drifted to sleep while going through the armor code, but he only slept a couple of hours. When he woke up he glanced at the camera feed to the gym and Steve was still there, though he had moved from the punching bag to lifting weights. Tony watched the video feed bleary eyed for several minutes. He was still so exhausted, but his body was really aching now from his earlier accident and that made it nearly impossible to go back to sleep. As he watched, Steve finished his workout and went, presumably, back to his floor. It was early evening, Tony’s sleep schedule was so wrecked his body didn’t know what was going on, but he figured maybe some food would be good. Yeah, he couldn’t remember his last meal, so food was definitely in order. Plus, Tony knew what he really needed to do now was to tell Steve everything, and maybe if he brought some food to Steve, he wouldn’t be quite so ready to wring Tony’s neck when he found out about all the lies.

So Tony found himself waiting in the elevator to be granted access to Steve’s personal floor, holding a large plate of sandwiches and two bottles of water.

Oh, god. You can do this, Tony. Just get it over with. Like ripping a bandage off.

Steve seemed surprised but not unhappy when the doors of the elevator opened and Tony stepped into Steve’s main living area. It was decorated and furnished with pieces that had clean lines, but warm textures. Lots of dark woods and some leather. Steve had seemed very pleased when he’d first seen it and none of the decor had really changed since then, so Tony assumed he really had liked it. Although, Tony was having a very hard time concentrating on anything besides the fact that Steve had clearly just taken a shower and was clad in a tight t-shirt and loose fitting sweatpants.

“What’s this, Tony?” Steve asked, a cautious smile alighting on his lips.

Tony mentally shook himself. You came here to tell him you’re a liar and beg for his forgiveness, he reminded himself.

“Well, I...wanted to talk. About….what you said, and…,” Tony took a deep breath, “There’s something I want to tell you.”

Steve briefly looked puzzled, but then he smiled warmly and gestured for Tony to come in and have a seat. Tony moved very stiffly toward the couch and coffee table, careful not to put too much weight on his left hip. He didn’t look at Steve, but he could practically feel the worried frown. Tony made it to the couch on his own though and set the plate and waters down. Steve sat down next to him on the couch and when Tony picked up a sandwich and began eating, Steve followed suit. They ate in silence for several minutes. When Tony had finished one sandwich and Steve had put away at least two and half, Tony took a drink of water and cleared his throat.

“I’m not very good at friendships or relationships of any kind,” Tony began, “but I really miss being your friend. The workshop isn’t quite the same without you sketching in the corner and occasionally humming songs older than dinosaurs.”

Steve made a face at him, but Tony could tell he was amused. It felt like most of the tension that had been between them over the past week or so was finally draining away.

“I’ve been a real ass lately and -”

“Tony, you don’t have to apologize,” Steve interrupted him, “Just please promise me you won’t shut everyone out like that again.”

Tony opened his mouth to respond, but Steve continued,

“And I don’t need to know if anything happened between you and Iron Man, I just need to know that you’re safe, Tony. I’ve really missed your friendship too…”

Steve hesitated for a moment.

“I’ve really missed you, Tony,” Steve said quietly, tenderly.

Somehow during their conversation they had moved closer and were now sitting right next to each other, thighs touching, and now Steve’s face was very close to Tony’s. A sort of distant hum in the back of Tony’s mind was telling him he should really be thinking about what Steve had just said, it was somehow very important, but it was difficult for him to think of anything except for the fact that he could feel Steve’s warm breath on his lips.

Tony’s heart was hammering in his chest as he instinctively leaned a little closer, unable to tear his gaze from Steve’s lips. Steve brought a hand up and mimicked his gesture from earlier, very lightly running his thumb under Tony’s bruised eye before trailing his hand lightly down Tony’s face to rest, impossibly warm, against the side of his neck. Then, Steve very slowly leaned forward and Tony’s eyes instinctively fluttered closed. Tony was expecting to feel Steve’s mouth on his, but instead; ever so gently, Steve kissed Tony’s black eye.

Tony stayed very still for a moment, his brain trying to catch up with his body and (more terrifyingly) his heart. When he felt Steve’s lips drift down to place a warm, gentle kiss on his cheekbone where the bruise was perhaps even darker, Tony let out a soft shaky sigh. God that felt good. When was the last time he had been touched so tenderly? He couldn’t remember. He leaned into Steve’s touch as the third kiss ghosted over a bruise on his jaw.

As his chest (really his whole torso) flooded with warmth at the simple pleasure of being touched so gently, and the much more rich and complicated pleasure of being touched by Steve washed over him; his brain finally caught up. What was he doing?! He couldn’t do this! Steve was just, comforting him, right? Steve was always physically affectionate with his team. Reassuring touching all over the place. This was just more of that, right?! There was certainly no way that Steve felt anything towards him besides friendship. Besides, Tony was still lying to him. He had come here to tell Steve the truth and here he was about to...well, he didn’t want to think about what he wanted to do.

Tony jumped to his feet. Steve looked a little surprised, but also a little ashamed, so Tony was sure he’d made the right move.

“I’m sorry, Steve. I know you’re just trying to comfort a friend, and I really appreciate it.”

Steve opened his mouth and looked like he was about to protest something, but Tony pushed ahead.

“You’re a really good guy, Steve. Anyone who can count themselves among your friends is so lucky, and I’m so glad I’m one of those people, but when you do stuff like that I just...Just please don’t. I already like you too much.”

Tony hadn’t meant to say that last part out loud, but it had kind of just come out. Steve still looked pretty ashamed, so Tony took that as his cue to leave. He turned and got into the elevator as quickly as possible. He totally wasn’t running away. Except, he totally was.

****

Tony’s heart was still pounding as he made it to the safety of his workshop. The door had barely closed behind him when he gave JARVIS the lockdown codes. What had he done? Maybe it was okay, maybe he and Steve could still salvage a friendship, given a little time…. Tony remembered the look of shame on Steve’s face and suddenly friendship seemed like something he had managed to thoroughly destroy in an instant, like a flash fire. Tony groaned, easing himself into his desk chair and putting his forehead down on the cool metal surface of his desk. He should probably try to get some sleep, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to now. Instead he got back to work on finding the problem with the armor’s code and hoped he might forget everything that had happened in the past several days.

Tony didn’t get very far with the code. 

"JARVIS playback the security footage from Captain Rogers’ livingroom."

All of the Avenger’s living areas had security cameras. Not their bedrooms or bathrooms, but access to those rooms was limited and anyone attempting to get into an Avenger’s bedroom (say to set a trap), would be forced to go through their living area and therefore be caught on tape. It was an important security measure, and none of the Avengers had voiced any concerns about it. They all just kept their private goings on to their bedroom areas.

So Tony began watching back the footage of Steve and himself. They definitely looked like more than friends from this angle. Tony felt really pathetic as he had JARVIS loop the footage on one of his computer screens while he tried to work on the code on the other. If that was as close to kissing Steve as he was ever going to get, Tony wanted to be sure he would remember it, especially since Steve was unlikely to even want to talk to him anymore.

When Tony finally couldn’t stay awake any longer, he slipped into dreams of big, strong hands, warm lips, and piercingly blue eyes.

*****

A surprised shout forced it’s way out of his throat as something quite literally yanked him out of his dreams. Tony could hear the very quiet sound of metal and tiny servos as the Iron Man armor’s grip tightened. Tony scrambled to understand what was going on. The armor’s fingers were tightly threaded through the hair at the base of Tony’s skull, and it had pulled his head up off the desk. He yelped as the suit lifted him onto his feet by his hair.

For several disorienting seconds, Tony couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then, he realized, his suit had been hacked. There was no one inside it, someone was remotely controlling it. But who would have the technical abilities to do…? Tony could vaguely remember, through a haze of exhaustion, the Avengers fight with the “improved” doombots. The robots had broken off immediately after that one had jammed a claw up under his shoulder plate. Fuck. Doom had planted a remote access control chip on his armor. 

Of course, it had taken days for Doom to hack the programming, but it had eventually worked and now Doom had control of Iron Man. This was bad. The Avengers would never forgive him if someone got hurt because of Iron Man. Steve would never forgive him.

The armor walked backwards a step or so from the desk Tony had been sleeping on, pulling him along with it.

“What -” Tony started to ask, but the armor gripped his hair tighter and bent him forward, smashing his head into the metal surface of the desk with what felt like lightning speed. Tony was seeing stars as the armor stood him up again.

“I will be asking the questions, Tony Stark,” Dooms unfortunately familiar voice emanated from the armor. “I know you are Iron Man’s personal engineer and mechanic. Iron Man is not here though, there are no life signs inside the suit. So, where is Iron Man? More importantly, who is Iron Man?”

The armor gave Tony a little shake and then began to lift him until his toes barely touched the workshop floor. Tony had his right hand wrapped around the top of the gauntlet that had hold of his hair, trying to lift himself to ease some of the pain of being lifted by his scalp.

“Emergency override, JARVIS!” Tony yelled, reaching his left hand back to try to pull one of the emergency release panels on the armor.

“Ah ah ah,” Doom chided, catching Tony’s left wrist in the other gauntlet.

“I can’t reach the armor’s systems, Sir. It appears to have been hacked,” JARVIS’ cool tones sounded through the workshop.

“Yeah, I can see that, J”

“Should I assemble the Avengers, Sir?”

Doom let go of Tony’s hair, but yanked him around by his wrist until he was facing the armor. “You do, and I will use your own repulsor to melt your hand off,” Doom snarled through the armor.

“Well, we can have that,” Tony replied, trying to come off as completely unconcerned, “I’m ambidextrous and I’d hate to lose my sterling reputation as a lover because I’d lost one of my best tools.”

That earned him a hard backhand across the already bruised side of his face. He desperately tried to contain it, but he couldn’t stop his pained cry.

“JARVIS, get me my armor back,” Tony called, feeling blood begin to ooze down the side of his face.

“I am attempting to regain control, Sir.”

There wasn’t much he could do, unarmed against his armor that was designed to be nearly indestructible. Tony did have a small, localized EMP device he’d been working on, but he didn’t think he could make it to the other side of the workshop to get it.

The armor advanced on him and Tony backed up a few steps, but again, there was nowhere to go. It grabbed his left wrist in it’s right gauntlet, there were already bruises forming from where it had held him moments ago. Then it began to squeeze. Tony clenched his jaw against the pain, and glared defiantly into the armor’s face.

“Why do you want to know Iron Man’s identity so badly? You have his armor. He’s nothing without it. Just take it and leave.” Tony was trying to make it out of this as quickly and as uninjured as possible. He could track the armor down later, if he wasn’t dead.

“Iron Man has been a thorn in my side for far too long. As have you, Mr. Stark. I intend to remove you both.”

Fear crept down Tony’s spine like ice.

“Now tell me, who is Iron Man?”

“Sorry, you just told me you were going to kill me anyway. So, why should I tell you who he is?”

Doom chuckled, which was somehow more frightening than Doom yelling angrily. Tony was about to ask him what was so funny, when the armor pulled hard on his wrist, knocking him off balance and then caught him by the throat in its other gauntlet, lifting him off the ground. Tony grabbed at the metal fingers around his throat with is right hand, scrabbling for purchase, trying to hold himself up enough to relieve some of the pressure on his throat.

“I want you to listen very carefully, Mr. Stark. I will kill all of the Avengers one by one until I find out who Iron Man is. So yes, I will kill you anyway even if you tell me. I’ll kill as many as it takes until I can find and kill Iron Man.”

Tony struggled violently against Doom’s grip, but the armor’s gauntlet tightened around his throat to make him stop squirming.

“I’ll ask them all, just like I’m asking you.”

Tony felt the repulsor pressed to his wrist begin to heat up. In another few seconds it would begin to burn his skin.

“Next, I will ask Captain America the identity of Iron Man. The leader of a team surely knows every secret about everyone on that team. If he won’t tell me, then I’ll kill him too.”

“No!”

Tony could barely choke the word out as he jerked hard, trying to free himself. For an instant, he could just see the looped footage of Steve and himself still playing on one of his monitors. There was no way he would let this monster anywhere near Steve! Or any of the Avengers. He would protect his team.

“I am Iron Man!” Tony gurgled, having trouble forcing his voice out of his almost closed throat.

“What?”

The gauntlet loosened just enough to make it possible for Tony to answer.

“I am Iron Man,” he repeated, “So just kill me now and leave the other Avengers out of this.”

“I don’t know why I’m surprised. That does make sense. Tony Stark is too egotistical to let someone else take the credit for his deeds. We are alike in that.”

“Fuck you!” Tony spat.

“Goodbye, Iron Man. I’m going to enjoy killing you slowly.”

Doom began to squeeze Tony’s throat tighter and tighter. Tony struggled, but his vision was beginning to go dark around the edges. He didn’t hear the pounding of boots, but he did faintly hear Steve’s voice as his vision narrowed to tiny pinpricks of light.

“Tony! What’s wrong?! JARVIS -”

There was a loud metallic clang and Steve yelled something else, but Tony couldn’t quite understand. There was another shout and a grinding sound and then Tony was hitting the ground, hard, on his already bruised hip (of course). He started choking as air rushed painfully hard down his throat and into his chest, but he was already wrenching himself into a standing position and turning back toward the armor. As Tony limped toward them, Steve managed to get the armor into a headlock and then hold it there. Holy shit, Tony thought distantly, making a note to freak out about how strong Captain America really was some other time, later, when they weren’t fighting his rogue armor.

Tony heard the faint whine just as he was almost within arm’s reach of the armor. He barely managed to duck as the armor shot a unibeam blast from it’s chest and Steve yelled something that sounded a lot like “Tony”. As he ducked, Tony reached for the hidden panel, slid it open and pressed the override button. The armor powered down and then sagged in Cap’s grip.

Tony sat down hard on the workshop floor, every muscle in his body turned to jelly. He heard Steve grunt, then the sound of the armor hitting the floor and sliding for several feet. What a major cock up.

“Steve, I…” Tony wheezed, his voice was rough, broken from the ordeal.

“Tony!”

Then Steve’s arms were around Tony, pulling him into a tight embrace. Tony whimpered involuntarily as his whole body protested.

“I’m so sorry, Tony. Are you okay? What happened? I’m so sorry.”

“I’ll be fine,” Tony croaked, finally looking up to see Steve’s face.

He looked so worried, so righteously angry, and so ridiculously handsome.

“I’m Iron Man,” Tony said. The words just slipped out. Ironically, he now had an airtight alibi. No one would ever question him about it again, or wonder if he was actually Iron Man. But Tony couldn’t keep living like this, and Steve deserved to know. Plus, after this, everyone would have believed Iron Man to be a hero of the people, but a domestic abuser. Tony didn’t want to tarnish Iron Man’s reputation with his lie. Iron Man was a hero.

Unsurprisingly, Steve looked very confused. He took Tony’s face in his hands so unbelievably gently.

“Tony, you’re hurt. You’re confused. And I’m calling SHIELD to come pick up Iron Man. He’ll go to jail for this. I’m so sorry, Tony.”

“No,” Tony shook his head firmly, “I’m sorry. I’ve been lying to you Steve. To all of you. I really am Iron Man. I’ve wanted to tell you for awhile, but I couldn’t face up to the fact that I’ve been lying to everyone for so long. This is all my fault. My injuries really are either accidents in the workshop or me getting beat up on the battlefield in the armor. Doom managed to slip a remote hacking device onto the suit during our last fight with him and he was the one controlling the armor just now.”

Tony had been avoiding looking at Steve’s face through his whole confession.

“But,” Steve began, still sounding unsure, “I thought...You have what happened between us earlier playing...and...so Iron Man wasn’t angry that we…”

Tony couldn’t help but look up into Steve’s face, Steve was never this inarticulate. Steve made a vague gesture toward the monitors on Tony’s desk and then seemed to give up, going slightly pink in the ears and cheeks.

“Oh, you thought Iron Man was...jealous…? But you were just comforting a friend, right?”

Steve sighed heavily, frowning at Tony.

“I don’t kiss all of my friends, Tony. I didn’t want to interfere with any relationships you might have had, but I thought I’d made my feelings pretty clear. I guess not…”

Steve looked irritated, but for once, not with Tony.

“I don’t...wait...you…?” Now it was Tony’s turn to be inarticulate. He had had a crush on Captain America for as long as he could remember. It had only gotten worse once he had actually met Steve Rogers, and it seemed impossible that Steve might like him too.

“Really quick,” Steve said, “Just so I understand. You are Iron Man. Those times I’ve seen you both in the same room, that was..”

“Rhodey.” Tony supplied.

“And you were never....involved with…”

“Rhodey? No. Never. Though I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it back in college...”

“Then," Steve cut him off, "and let me be perfectly clear about this, would it be okay if I kiss you? Because I like you a lot Tony and I would really like to kiss you.”

“Oh,” Tony breathed. 

Jan and Pepper were going to laugh at them both for being such oblivious idiots when they found out. Come to think of it, everyone was going to laugh. Maybe they just shouldn’t tell anyone…

“Uh, yes. Please, do. I would really like that too.” Tony somehow managed to reply while his stomach flipflopped in anticipation.

“Okay, good.” Steve replied, moving to stand up, “I intend to do just that, once we get you bandaged and cleaned up.”

"Tease." Tony complained.

“Thank you for telling me the truth, Tony. We need to tell the rest of the team that you’re Iron Man, too. You don’t have to tell the whole world, but you should tell the team. I understand why you would try to protect a secret identity. It’s completely normal to try to distance yourself from people who might try to hurt you, or your loved ones, but this isn’t working anymore. I think you want them to know, too. 

Not for any honor or glory, but because they’re your friends and you want them to know the real you.”

Steve was right, of course. Tony had been feeling the burden of the secret growing for months now and he already felt magnitudes better just for having told Steve. He was done with this secret. It had become too difficult to bear.

“You’re right, Steve. I’m tired of keeping secrets. Like my secret identity…how I hate reality TV…”

Steve chuckled, “That second one wasn’t a secret.”

Tony slowly lifted his right hand and placed it in the middle of Steve’s chest, his fingers splaying slightly. 

“...the way I feel about you…”

Steve’s breath caught, and his expression turned very serious.

“I’ve liked you since I met you. You’re brilliant, funny, and caring. You’re one of the best people I know.” Steve said emphatically, covering Tony’s hand on his chest with is own.

Tony blinked, thrown by Steve’s sudden confession. Steve smiled at Tony’s flustered expression.

“What? I’m tired of keeping how I feel about you a secret too.”

Steve lifted Tony’s hand off of his chest and brought it to his lips, pressing a warm kiss into Tony’s palm without breaking eye contact. It was a good thing Tony was still sitting on the floor because he felt his knees go a little weak at the gesture.

Tony cleared his throat thickly.

“So...do you think the team is ready to find out the truth about Tony Stark and Iron Man?” he asked.

“More than ready,” Steve replied immediately, “I know Jan and I had our suspicions at one point. Everyone else will just be glad to know what has been going on with you lately. They were all starting to get more fed up with Iron Man than usual and some people were starting to take sides between you two…”

“Whose side-” Tony started to ask before he could stop himself.

Steve gingerly helped Tony stand up and began leading him out of the workshop.

“Yours, of course. I told you, you’re the heart of this team.”

**** END ****


End file.
